Celebration Time!

As you may know, our church family is trying to reach the city of Porto Alegre through a network of house churches. Each Sunday our church family meets in different house churches in the city. However, on the last Sunday of each month we meet together at a rented facility for a Celebration service.

This last Sunday was a Celebration service - and it was a powerful one at that! We had a great time of worship and praise and a time of prayer as a church family. During the lesson (Don't Underestimate the Little Things) we invited three of our members, Garigran; Clarice and Tiago to give their testimonies. I have known each of the people who gave a testimony between 2 and 4 years. Surprisingly, I learned a lot about each person through the words that they shared. It was a real encouragement to me and to the rest of our church family.

Garigran giving his testimony.

Clarice giving her testimony.

You may remember that Tiago traveled to Australia about 6 weeks ago. He sent his testimony via email and our brother Paulo Renato read it to us. Here is Tiago's testimony translated into English for you.

It all started in a winter just like any other. I knew that some church was going to have free English classes, and what was more interesting was that the classes would be given by Americans. What more could an engineering student with no money and bad English want?

Anyway, during this time I was a staunch atheist. I knew that there existed something more, but I didn’t call this something God, or better, I thought that this “something more” had nothing to do with the god that people were talking about. I thought that church was just something that some unscrupulous people used to take money from others. For me Jesus was simply a person who lived some 2,000 years ago, did good things, and was made into a kind of baseless idol.

On the other hand, I had (and still have) a deep respect for the beliefs of others. I was really sure of what I believed, and I was certain that I wouldn’t change. But I knew (and still know) that I don’t know everything, especially about what is right for other people.

So, when I decided to participate in the English classes, also known as LST, or Let’s Start Talking, I always tried to respect what was they were trying to teach, even though at that time it didn’t touch my heart, and I didn’t have the slightest intention of changing. On the other hand, nothing was being forced on me. During the classes we basically read the Bible and discussed what we read, letting the Word do the work. In fact, if it had been the other way, if they had tried to force it on me, I doubt I would have continued going to church for very long.

This continued for a good amount of time. The “teachers” changed, but I continued participating in the English classes at the church whenever I could. What I didn’t notice at the time was that I was changing. In the beginning it was only about the classes; with time it began to make sense to me.

I think that the point when I realized I had been changed was when one of my teachers invited me to a Bible study group, this time in Portuguese. I accepted, and what’s worse, I liked it!

To make a long story short, from that time on I began faithfully participating in this group. During this same time period, the church of Christ started to utilize the concept of the house church, and I started going to worship every Sunday. I also started to participate in the Men’s group. All of this worked together in order for me to see how much God was doing in the lives of the people with whom I interacted during these activities.

All of this culminated in the moment when I decided that I would spend some time in Australia. I realized that it didn’t do any good for me to deny any longer how much Jesus had touched my life, and that I had already made Him my Lord and Savior. It was then, just before I traveled to Australia, that I asked to be baptized.

I hope these words have been encouraging in some way. I would have like to have written more, but I lack inspiration, just like I lack a way with words.

May God bless you and give you peace.

After the service we had a great time of fellowship - which usually includes some kind of delicious treat. We were all blessed by this great time of worship, encouragement and fellowship. Please remember our church family in your prayers when you can - that we would allow the Lord to work through us to grow is Kingdom in mighty ways.

Transition Is Upon Us

Whether you keep up with our family or our work (or perhaps both) we want to make you aware of a big transition that our family is preparing for in the not-so-distant future.

It is hard to believe that our 5-year commitment to working in Brazil is almost up. We spent most of 2007 thinking and praying about where God might want us after this initial commitment. After a lot of discussion and prayer we came to feel peace in returning to the US in the second quarter of 2009. Of course, we expect that it will not be easy to leave Porto Alegre. Just imagining saying “até mais” to our many brothers and sisters of this church family makes me tear up already. We have invested a lot to be where we are and to do what we do, but we know in our hearts it is time for our family to move on.

Word travels fast, so I imagine that many who read our blogs already know of our plans. We shared with all the house churches in our church family last month. We were really blessed by the way each house church accepted our plans to leave Brazil. With less American presence there will be more shift toward Brazilian responsibility and leadership in the house churches – something we are all excited about.

One thing that I will say about our future plans is that we haven’t worked all the kinks out yet. There is still a lot of time (approximately between 8 and 10 months) for us in Brazil, so I will wait to share some of the more specific details for other posts. However, we are very excited about where we see the Lord taking us!

I wanted to express our gratitude for all the love and support that you have shown us. We shouldn’t start our transition out of some responsibilities here until sometime around November and will remain in Porto Alegre working with house churches in some capacity until March or May of next year. Once we land on US soil I expect we will spend a little bit of time with our sponsoring congregation in Colorado Springs before the next stage of our lives begins.

In the meantime, stay tuned…. we are still working hard and enjoying our time in Brazil, and will keep you posted as always on the many happenings in Porto Alegre.

Much love,

The Terrys

Cesar

Last night our good friend, Cesar, gave his life over to Jesus through baptism. He shared with us last month that he had a dream in which a man resembling his father told him to "follow his heart". Cesar knew exactly how to interpret the dream. The night after he had the dream he expressed his desire to be baptized! We have had a few good discussions and studies since then to help him understand the significance of baptism and the Christian walk that the Lord calls us to lead. Cesar is a wonderful young man who is full of love and joy in the Lord. We are very excited for him and his new commitment to Christ.

Sascha and Cesar immediately following the baptism.

Cesar first came to know our church family through an LST campaign a few years ago. Since that time we have grown our relationship with him and he has grown his relationship with Jesus. It has already been a great experience to see him grow and mature spiritually.

We were very please by those who were able to come and witness this wonderful event. Several folks from different house churches came to encourage Cesar, as well as his mother - who we have only met once before about 2 years ago. We made Cesar's baptism the focal point of our worship to the Lord. During our time together each person gave a word of encouragement, shared a blessing, led a song, prayed or read from scripture. It was a wonderful time of celebration for each of us - especially Cesar!

Cesar and his mother after the baptism.

The celebration!

I plan to continue studying with Cesar for as long as we can. All Christians need support and encouragement, but especially the young ones. We hope and pray that Cesar would feel the protection of the Holy Spirit as he begins his walk with God. We ask you to keep Cesar in your prayers as well.

The Heat

Last month I wrote a post about the cold we experience in Porto Alegre during the winter (June through August). You could say that I even complained about it. Sometimes it is pretty difficult to endure.

However, all residents of our part of the world have been pretty surprised about the drastic change and consistency of the weather for the last couple of weeks. I would estimate that it has been anywhere from 75 to 85 degrees during that time span. This is extremely odd. It has the look and feel of summer. Practically everyone is outside walking or running for exercise; parks are full of people; and swimming pools aren't such a nuisance to clean!

It started to cool down a little today and we expect it to stay in the 60s over the next few days. I don't know about Global Warming, but this kind of crazy heat really makes me scratch my head.

Anyway, I thought that I would keep any loyal readers in the loop on interesting stuff like the weather. Stay tuned, I expect to have more to write about in the very near future... maybe my favorite elevator tunes!

"A Cup of Cold Water"

And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers, you will surely be rewarded.

Matthew 10:42

For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.

Matthew 25:35-36

Last year our family moved from an apartment to a house. There are many differences between apartments and houses that are very obvious. However, many differences exist that you wouldn’t find to be quite so obvious. One example in particular is the amount of contact you have with people passing by your home. In an apartment, the doorman always talks to the people passing by. If people come to the front gate of our house, we are ones who speak to them.

Sometime late last year we met a young woman named Diane. She came to our door one day asking if we could spare some change for bus tokens. We don’t typically give out money and rarely do we have bus tokens. However, there is a member of our church family who tithes a bag of bus tokens each month. This member had given us a bag of tokens to hand out to folks who needed them. So, on this day we were able to help Diane with some tokens.

Time and again Diane would return to our door asking for tokens. Through this need we began to grow a relationship with her. Jennifer especially felt called to minister to this young woman. Jennifer would visit with Diane when she would come to our door. Over time we started to learn who Diane is and what kind of life she has.

Diane is 25 years old and is the mother of 5 children. Her three oldest are from a previous relationship (their father is deceased) and her two youngest are from her current husband. Her children range in age from 7 years to 4 months.

She lives in a shanty town not to far from our home. Living conditions have been really difficult for them, but most recently they have been able to do some standard renovations that will allow them to have some small comforts that most of us take for granted (warm showers and electricity).

It isn’t unusual for Diane to come to our house once or twice a week asking for bus tokens or food. We visit with her and usually help her with her need. On occasion she comes to our home upset by something that is going on with her children. A few months ago she came to our door in tears because Camilla, her 3 year old, swallowed rat poison and almost died. Several weeks ago she came telling us that her first husband’s mother, who had been caring for the 3 oldest children, passed away unexpectedly. Last month she told us that child protective services had come to her house to take away her children because of the living conditions. Last week she came to our door every day! One of those days she came to tell us that one of her 5-year old twins, Stefanie, has leukemia. Unbelievable!

Sadly, the world has influenced us at times to want to not believe this poor woman. In a world of dishonesty it is easy for one to become cynical toward people with needs like Diane’s. There are times when we are so tired of the situations and stories that we don’t want to listen. I confess that I have wanted to ignore the door bell of various occasions. But, I can’t do that. If I am to call myself a follower of Jesus I need to listen to Diane each time she comes knocking on my door. I need to show her grace and mercy. Maybe she has lied to us. So what!? She still deserves to know Jesus’ love for her. She still deserves to have someone to listen to her troubles. She still deserves that “cup of cold water”.

I ask you to be in prayer for Diane and her family. I believe that she wants to be the best wife and mommy she can be and is really having a difficult time. Please pray for her children; for their safety and health. Please pray for them to be blessed by a relationship with Jesus Christ…

and please pray for our family to be a family of mercy and compassion so that we may be ready to minister to the hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, sick and imprisoned of this world.

Roberto

Roberto, Moema and their son, Kjeld

Over the past year and half we have learned a lot in our house church network. We have learned who people really are - their strengths and weaknesses; their passions and fears; their levels of spiritual maturity and immaturity. Sometimes it can be difficult and sometimes it can be overwhelmingly rewarding.

Roberto and Moema are some of our members who meet in the Blume's home on Sundays. They gave their lives to Jesus and were baptized almost 2 years ago. It seems that for them the transition to house churches was an easy one to make. Their faith-walk has been a struggle at times, but they always seem to do the right thing. We love them very much and are very proud of them and their desire to grow closer to the Lord.

Roberto is a man who is always striving to do better. He is always ready to share a blessing with a fellow follower of Christ. He has a great personality and an awesome smile and laugh.

This Sunday, Roberto will begin a 5-month Spiritual discipline course with a group called JOCUM (youth with a mission). He hopes to discover how to grow and use his spiritual gifts and to learn how to be a stronger disciple of Jesus. During the 5 months of the course, Roberto will be in another town. This means that he will not have the comfort of his own home or the company and encouragement of his own family.

Please pray for Roberto during the next 5 months. Pray that the Lord would use this opportunity to grow Roberto and to mature this church family. Roberto is an awesome example of how to sacrifice for the Kingdom. Like I said before, we are very proud of him.

Ismenio

In 2004 and 2005 our church family hosted Let's Start Talking campaigns. LST is used as an avenue to bring folks into a church environment using English. Study sessions are set up with readers and American campaigners to read the books of Luke and Acts. Throughout the 6-week campaign there are parties for the readers and even a Friend's Camp. It is a good way of establishing relationships and introducing Jesus to many people.

After the 2005 campaign Matt Rehbein, Tessa Sexton and I did follow-up studies with around 30 interested individuals. As a result we made many good friends through LST. Some of these people have come to know Jesus through our relationships with them. Just to name a few: Waleska (Matt's wife), Grace, Tiago and Cesar (who will be baptized soon) each started studying the Bible with more interest through LST. I have been able to maintain relationships with a couple of other LST readers too. Ricardo and I had an on-going Bible study in English up until recently that last almost 3 years. It is possible that we will resume again someday. Also, I have another good friend from LST named Ismenio (pronounced is-men-E-o).

As you may have gathered from the title of this post the subject is Ismenio. Ismenio is a sergeant in the Brazilian Army. He is stationed in a little town outside of Porto Alegre called Sapucaia do Sul. After the 2005 LST campaign we were not able to continue our follow-up studies. We stayed in touch by playing soccer together on Saturdays. However, after a few months the soccer ministry fizzled and I went on furlough. One drawback to furlough is that sometimes you loose your established rhythm and relationships suffer. Unfortunately, this happen to my relationship with Ismenio. I thought about him often, but didn't stay in touch.

A few months ago, after almost 2 years of nothing, Ismenio sent me an email. He was wanting to know if I would be willing to study English with him to help him prepare for a test the military had invited him to take. As it turns out, he had been invited to take an English proficiency test in Brasilia. If he did well enough he could possibly be invited to participate in military training and courses in the United States. This possible series of events had potential to really bless Ismenio's family and his military career.

I agreed to meet with Ismenio once a week until the week of the test. We read through magazines and different articles in English to work on comprehension. Then we started working on Ismenio's endurance. What I mean is that I would make up practice tests that were similar to what he would take in Brasilia. He was able to take practice tests for about 4 weeks before he left for Brasilia to take the real thing.

He had been under the impression that there would be a lot of people (sergeants) taking the test with him. As it turned out, he was only 1 of 4 sergeants participating. I was very confident in Ismenio and what he did to prepare. He ended up scoring an 88 out of 100 questions! The other three scores were: 61, 66 and 69. Needless to say, Ismenio was invited to participate in the training and courses in the United States.

For the last few weeks Ismenio has called Ft. Bliss (El Paso, Texas) his home. I have received a few emails from him. He is working hard and doing really well. I am really proud of my friend and how hard he worked to get to where he is. Please pray the Lord's blessings on Ismenio. It is my prayer that his relationship with God would come full circle through this experience and that he too will come to call Jesus his Lord.

This picture is of Ismenio and a Brazilian colleague posing with the mayor of El Paso, Texas. Ismenio is the soldier on the right.

Christian Architecture

"Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better." Colossians 1:10

I recently had a couple of experiences that made me think a little bit about "Christian architecture". In relation to Christianity, you may think of architecture in the sense of construction of a church building or you may also think of the growth and maturity of a Christian soul.

This last weekend we went with my parents to the towns of Gramado and Canela - just a couple of hours away from Porto Alegre. While we were there my dad and I took in the architecture of a Catholic church. I must admit that I admire and love the stone work and the stain glass windows. Man really can build some amazing structures! However, it is my opinion that too much emphasis is given to the physical aspects of a building.

Today I spent about an hour and a half studying with a good friend named, Cesar. Cesar has been a part of the house church that meets in our home for almost a year. A couple of weeks ago Cesar told us that we wanted to be baptized! He grew up in a religious home and already has a knowledge of Jesus Christ. As we studied today we talked about the difference between having religion and having a relationship with Jesus. We talked about the significance of baptism and what it means to be a new creation in Jesus. It was a great study for us as Cesar prepares to live his life for Jesus. As we talked I could see how his soul will soon be a new structure in Christ. He knows that the next step is his baptism. I expect that it is very possible he will show his love for Jesus through his baptism this coming Sunday. Whenever it is Cesar decides to be baptized we have committed to spend every Tuesday for the foreseeable future studying Christian living and answering any questions or doubts Cesar may have. As he continues to study (just like all of his fellow brothers and sisters in Christ) he will grow into "Christian architecture" that is shaped and formed by grace, mercy and love. This is the most beautiful architecture of all.

From left to right: Paulo Renato, Leni & Cesar. This photo was taken moments after Cesar told us of his desire to be baptized.